This invention relates to monostable multivibrators and, more particularly, to a retriggerable monostable multivibrator having minimal recovery time.
Monostable multivibrators are well known in the pulse and switching waveform art. They are commonly used as gating or delay circuits, as described in Millman & Taub, "Pulse, Digital and Switching Waveforms," pp. 404-451, McGraw-Hill, 1965. In operation, upon the application of a triggering signal, the circuit switches from its stable state to its quasistable state and remains in the quasistable state while a timing impedance, typically consisting of a timing capacitor C.sub.X and timing resistor R.sub.X, is discharged; the circuit will then return to the stable state within a variable period known as the recovery time. The pulse width of the output is the sum of the discharge time of the timing impedance and the recovery or recharge time. The value of the recovery time can be varied by varying C.sub.X and R.sub.X over a wide range to obtain a desired pulse width. It is desirable, generally, then, that the discharge time of the timing impedance be short as compared with the recovery time so that the pulse width can be accurately set over a wide range by varying the values of C.sub. X and R.sub.X without the limitation of a relatively large fixed discharge time.